Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
  • E01C—CONSTRUCTION OF, OR SURFACES FOR, ROADS, SPORTS GROUNDS, OR THE LIKE; MACHINES OR AUXILIARY TOOLS FOR CONSTRUCTION OR REPAIR
  • E01C13/00—Pavings or foundations specially adapted for playgrounds or sports grounds; Drainage, irrigation or heating of sports grounds
  • E01C13/08—Surfaces simulating grass ; Grass-grown sports grounds

Definitions

• the present application relates to an artificial turf system comprising hydrophobic sand and its use as an artificial turf for sports.
• Artificial turf has been used for many decades as an alternative to natural grass in both sports and landscape areas. Depending on the use, the artificial turf in sports and landscape areas must meet different requirements.
• the structure, texture and appearance of the artificial turf surface varies depending on the technical requirements placed on the respective artificial turf. This is achieved, for example, by using different yarns, the number of filaments used, the filament length, etc.
• a high-performance artificial turf does not consist solely of the visible artificial turf surface.
• Below the artificial turf surface there are various layers which, among other things, ensure better cushioning and drainage of the artificial turf surface.
• Artificial turf systems that have an elastic base layer or sub-layer underneath the artificial turf surface are primarily used in sports.
• the elastic base layer under the artificial turf surface ensures that the power build-up on the artificial turf is guaranteed.
• the artificial turf systems in the sports area are filled with different infill materials, such as sand, cork or mixtures thereof.
• infill materials give the artificial turf system a firm hold and increase the playing characteristics and resilience.
• they provide cushioning and make a significant contribution to other properties of the artificial turf system, such as ball bounce behavior, ball rolling behavior and minimizing the risk of injury.
• Artificial turf systems in the sports sector are also required to be playable even after rain and in cold temperatures. Among other things, this requires that the surface of the artificial turf system does not freeze at temperatures around freezing and does not become too slippery. That means that the Rotational resistance of the artificial turf system according to EN 15301-1 does not drop too much even in wintry conditions and preferably remains above 30 Nm.
• the object of the present invention is therefore to provide an artificial turf system, in particular for sports, by means of which the disadvantages described above can be overcome.
• the present invention accordingly relates to an artificial turf system comprising an elastic sub-layer, an artificial turf carpet applied to the elastic sub-layer, and a first filling material filled into the artificial turf carpet, the first filling material comprising hydrophobic sand.
• the artificial turf system according to the invention provides for the first time a sand-filled artificial turf system in which the residual moisture content of the sand filled in the artificial turf system after rain and rainwater runoff - even in heavy rain showers of more than 40 l/m 2 - is below 20% by weight, based on the total weight of the filled sand. This ensures that the artificial turf system according to the invention does not freeze to form a hard, compact surface in wintry weather conditions—even after heavy rain showers.
• the rotational resistance of the artificial turf system according to the invention therefore remains sufficiently high even in wet wintry conditions below freezing and is preferably always above 30 Nm.
• the artificial turf system according to the invention has excellent playing properties, especially in winter, such as excellent ball bounce behavior, excellent ball rolling behavior, low slipping behavior (low risk of slipping), excellent traction and rotation behavior and excellent elasticity. This minimizes the risk of injury to players when using the artificial turf system according to the invention, particularly in damp and/or wintry weather conditions.
• the artificial turf system according to the invention has an elastic base layer.
• any conventional elastic base layer that has already been used in artificial turf systems or is suitable for this purpose can be used. This can be, for example, prefabricated shock pads (shock-absorbing rubber cushions or rubber mats) or elastic layers or elastic base layers.
• the artificial turf system according to the invention has an artificial turf carpet applied to the elastic base layer.
• any conventional artificial turf carpet that has hitherto been used in artificial turf systems or is suitable for this purpose can be used.
• the artificial turf system according to the invention has a first filling material which is filled into the artificial turf carpet and comprises hydrophobic sand.
• hydrophobic sand refers to sand that has hydrophobic properties and, associated therewith, has a low water-binding capacity. According to the present invention, this can be a sand that inherently has hydrophobic properties or a sand that has been made hydrophobic by modification, for example by surface functionalization.
• the hydrophobic sand comprised by the artificial turf system according to the invention is characterized in that it has a lower water-binding capacity and therefore binds less water/residual water compared to conventional sand, such as quartz sand, river sand, sea sand, windblown sand, desert sand and mixtures thereof.
• conventional sand such as quartz sand, river sand, sea sand, windblown sand, desert sand and mixtures thereof.
• the hydrophobic sand of the artificial turf system of the present invention is less able to bind water molecules through hydrogen bonding and agglomerate into a solid layer.
• the elastic base layer comprises a bonded elastic layer, an elastic base layer or shock pads (shock-absorbing rubber cushions or rubber mats).
• the artificial turf carpet applied to the elastic base layer is selected from the group consisting of an artificial turf carpet comprising at least one textured yarn, an artificial turf carpet comprising at least one smooth yarn and an artificial turf carpet comprising at least one smooth yarn and at least one textured yarn.
• the hydrophobic sand has a substantially spherical shape. On the one hand, this reduces the risk of injury to players when using the artificial turf system according to the invention.
• a round-grained sand is less able to agglomerate.
• the round-grain sand mold contributes to less wear and tear on the artificial turf fibers compared to a more sharp-edged sand mold.
• At least 95% by weight of the hydrophobic sand has a grain size distribution of 0.2 to 2.0 mm, preferably 0.25 to 1.40 mm, based on the total weight of the filled hydrophobic sand.
• the hydrophobic sand has a fines content of less than 0.063 mm that is less than or equal to 2% by weight based on the total weight of the backfilled hydrophobic sand.
• the content of CaCO 3 in the hydrophobic sand is less than or equal to 3% by weight and/or the content of SiO 2 in the hydrophobic sand is greater than or equal to 96% by weight, based on the total weight of the hydrophobic sand, is.
• the filling quantity of the hydrophobic sand is 5-20 kg/m 2 .
• the hydrophobic sand is filled in such a way that the sand layer is generally well permeable. This means that the sand layer is well permeable to the rainwater falling on the artificial turf system during a rain shower, in order to prevent water from stagnating on the surface of the artificial turf system. Accumulated water on the artificial turf layer would significantly affect the properties of the artificial turf system, such as ball bounce, ball roll, slip, traction and rotation.
• the hydrophobic sand is hydrophobic sand.
• hydrophobic sand includes sand or sand particles to which hydrophobic properties are/are imparted by surface functionalization.
• the surface functionalization of the sand/sand particles is preferably formed by hydrophobic molecules which are applied to the sand/sand particles in particular via a chemical bond.
• the proportion by weight of the surface functionalization of the sand/sand particles is less than 5% by weight, preferably 0.05-3% by weight, more preferably 0.1-1% by weight, based on the total weight of the hydrophobic sands/the hydrophobic sand particles.
• the sand/sand particles is/are preferably selected from the group consisting of quartz sand, river sand, sea sand, windblown sand, desert sand and mixtures thereof.
• the hydrophobic sand is preferably selected from hydrophobic quartz sand, hydrophobic river sand, hydrophobic sea sand, hydrophobic drift sand, hydrophobic desert sand and mixtures thereof.
• the hydrophobic sand is particularly preferably hydrophobic quartz sand.
• the hydrophobicized sand is produced by conventional surface functionalization processes known to those skilled in the art.
• the present invention provides that the surface functionalization preferably does not include a plastic coating (polymer coating) of the carrier particles, since such particles could be discharged into the environment as microplastics.
• the surface functionalization processes are preferably hydrophobing processes.
• a particularly preferred hydrophobing process is silanization.
• the hydrophobic sand is silanized sand.
• silanized sand refers to sand or sand particles that have been silanized using a silanization process.
• basically any conventional silanization process can be used to produce the silanized sand.
• the sand to be silanized preferably quartz sand, river sand, sea sand, windblown sand, desert sand and mixtures thereof, can be reacted with a suitable silane at ambient temperature while stirring or during transport in a conveyor such as a screw conveyor.
• the sand/silane mixture can then either be used directly in the artificial turf or initially subjected to a drying process at an elevated temperature for a few hours be subjected to.
• the silane used for the silanization is advantageously used in the form of an aqueous formulation which, in addition to the silane, optionally contains a surfactant, for example an ethoxylated secondary fatty alcohol.
• a surfactant for example an ethoxylated secondary fatty alcohol.
• the proportion of the silane in the aqueous formulation is preferably 1-25% by weight, more preferably 1-10% by weight, based on the total weight of the aqueous formulation.
• the silane used for the silanization is preferably selected from the group consisting of alkoxysilanes, in particular alkylalkoxysilanes and alkylsiloxanes. More preferably, the silane used is selected from the group consisting of an alkyltrimethoxysilane, an alkyltriethoxysilane, an alkyloligosiloxane, an alkylpolysiloxane, and/or mixtures thereof, preferably wherein the alkyl group is an alkyl group having 3-12 carbon atoms, preferably 6-10 carbon atoms, and most preferably preferably comprises 8 carbon atoms or mixtures thereof.
• the silane used is an alkyltriethoxysilane, especially triethoxyoctylsilane.
• the silane is MasterPel 708, 793 or 903 silane formulations from BASF.
• the silanized sand is particularly preferably sand, preferably quartz sand, river sand, sea sand, windblown sand, desert sand and mixtures thereof, which is silanized with an alkyltrimethoxysilane, an alkyltriethoxysilane, an alkylsiloxane, an alkyloligosiloxane, an alkylpolysiloxane and/or mixtures thereof.
• the silanized sand is a sand that is silanized with an alkyltriethoxysilane, in particular triethoxyoctylsilane, or the silane formulation MasterPel 708, 793 or 903 from BASF.
• the proportion by weight of the silanization is advantageously ⁇ 5% by weight, preferably 0.001-3% by weight, more preferably 0.001-1% by weight, based on the total weight of the silanized sand. On the one hand, the amount is sufficient to make the particle surface completely hydrophobic and, on the other hand, to work in a resource-saving manner.
• this also comprises a second filling material filled into the artificial turf carpet.
• the second filling material is preferably selected from the group consisting of cork, crushed olive stones, nut shells, wood, rubber granules and/or mixtures thereof. More preferably, the second filler material is selected from the group consisting of cork, crushed olive stones, nut shells, wood and/or mixtures thereof.
• the present invention also relates to the use of the artificial turf system according to the invention as an artificial turf for sports.
• the rolled turf system according to the invention is particularly suitable as artificial sports turf in football and hockey , rugby, American football, tennis and golf, although in principle any other type of sport can also be played on the artificial turf system.
• a Buchner funnel with a diameter of 10 cm and fitted with a sieve insert was filled with a volume of 265 ml of the respective sand. Then 300 ml of tap water was applied to the sand using a shower and the water that ran off was collected in a measuring cylinder.
• An artificial turf carpet consisting of a jointly tufted slitfilm polyethylene yarn (12,000 dtex, thickness 0.130 mm) and a textured polyethylene yarn (8,000 dtex, thickness 0.320 mm), gauge 3/8'', with a pile height of The artificial turf carpet was then filled with sand to a height of about 17 mm, using the hydrophobic quartz sand from Example 1 in the first stainless steel pan and the non-hydrophobic quartz sand in the second stainless steel pan for comparison.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Architecture (AREA)
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Cited By (3)

Citations (4)

• 2020
  • 2020-11-13 EP EP20207347.4A patent/EP4001506B1/fr active Active
• 2021
  • 2021-11-12 US US18/036,850 patent/US20230407578A1/en active Pending
  • 2021-11-12 WO PCT/EP2021/081561 patent/WO2022101430A1/fr active Application Filing

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